All Day French Breakfast Class at Cookery School

Brioche buns and a brioche loaf (in the background)

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to attend an All Day French Breakfast class at the fabulous Cookery School on Little Portland Street. In only a few hours, our little class of five (Olympic travel had prevented a few others from attending) had learnt the art of bread and laminated dough making, been given a crash course in speedy jam making, as well as finding the time to scoff down a delicious breakfast of pain aux raisin and mini croissants and also a fine lunch of homemade bread and posh cheese and pâté. 

Delicious flower salad for lunch picked from Regents Park

Lunchtime baguette. We also had cheese from Le Fromagerie and homemade
pâté, but I was too busy eating to photograph everything.

Rhum babas we learnt to make and then ate for pudding after lunch. The photo is a bit
fuzzy, because Cookery School also give you wine with lunch. How very French!

We were shown the bread ropes by the charismatic teachers, Ghalid and Rosalind, who managed to put us all at ease and show us where we were going wrong. I am no stranger to making bread or laminated dough, but it was wonderful to have an expert on hand offering useful tips and tricks to help me improve my skills. They made even the most intimidating recipes look effortless and we all left with bucket loads of confidence and much welcome goodie bags. It was an excellent way to spend a Sunday and I couldn't recommend it enough. If you don't believe me, just look at the professional looking goods we made.

Pain aux raisin

Beautiful baguettes!

Mini croissants, pain au chocolat and pain aux raisin ready for the oven.

Not only did we go away with a bag of brioche, cinnamon buns and croissant dough, but Cookery School threw in a bag of Billington's sugar and Allinson flour, a bread dough scraper, sour dough starter and all the recipes from the day printed out on little cards and placed in a tidy plastic folder for us. 

I will be teaching a class at Cookery School on how to make your own wedding cake to tie in with the UK launch date of my new book. More details coming soon, but while you're waiting, why not check out their other classes here.